Nothing But Blue Skies

Is there such a thing as a perfect marriage? David thought so. But when his wife Mary Rose dies suddenly he has to think again. In reliving their twenty years together David sees that the ground beneath them had shifted and he simply hadn't noticed. Or had chosen not to. Figuring out who Mary Rose really was and the secrets that she kept - some of these hidden in plain sight - makes David wonder if he really knew her. Did he even know himself? Nothing But Blue Sky is a precise and tender story of love in marriage - a gripping examination of what binds couples together and of what keeps them apart. ______________ 'Touching and enthralling' Sunday Times 'What a beautiful novel ... Elegant, understated, subtly powerful, and rings so perfectly true' Donal Ryan 'Heart-rending ... MacMahon's words ring with the honesty of truth, offering genuine insight into the human condition' Business Post 'Beautiful and moving' Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground 'Skilfully written with a wonderful lightness of touch' Irish Times 'Gentle and triumphant, MacMahon offers us a novel seeped in beautiful prose and poignant tenderness' Anne Griffin 'A beautifully written and powerful tale' Woman & Home 'A tender dissection of a marriage' Independent 'A piece of perfection ... the best book I've read all year' Irish Examiner 'Sure and subtle, MacMahon holds the reader in her spell. She is a born storyteller' Mike McCormack.

A ruefully funny novel of embattled manhood, set in Big Sky Country—by the highly acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, with writing “so dazzlingly acute and seemingly effortless that it infuses Nothing but Blue Skies with exuberance and wit."—Chicago Tribune This high-spirited and fiercely lyrical novel chronicles the fall and rise of Frank Copenhaver, a man so unhinged by his wife's departure that he finds himself ruining his business, falling in love with the wrong women, and wandering the lawns of his neighborhood, desperate for the merest glimpse of normalcy. The result is a Montana where cowboys slug it out with speculators, a cattleman's best friend may be his insurance broker, and love and fishing are the only consolations that last. "Vibrant with the pleasures of ironic language, play and chase, and quick with broken-hearted humor."—Los Angeles Times Book Review.

There are many reasons why British summers are either non-existent or, alternatively, held on a Thursday. Many of these reasons are either scientific, mad, or both-but all of them are wrong, especially the scientific ones. The real reason why it rains perpetually from January 1st to December 31st is, of course, irritable Chinese Water Dragons. Karen is one such legendary creature. Ancient, noble, nearly indestructible and, for a number of wildly improbable reasons, working as a real estate agent, Karen is irritable quite a lot of the time. But now things have changed, and Karen's no longer irritable. She's furious..

The Upper Midwest and Great Lakes region became the “arsenal of democracy”-the greatest manufacturing center in the world-in the years during and after World War II thanks to natural advantages and a welcoming culture. Decades of unprecedented prosperity followed, memorably punctuated by riots, strikes, burning rivers, and oil embargoes. A vibrant, quintessentially American character bloomed in the region's cities, suburbs, and backwaters. But the innovation and industry that defined the Rust Belt also helped to hasten its demise. An air conditioner invented in Upstate New York transformed the South from a sweaty backwoods to a nonunionized industrial competitor. Japan and Germany recovered from their defeat to build fuel-efficient cars in the stagnant 1970s. The tentpole factories that paid workers so well also filled the air with soot, and poisoned waters and soil. The jobs drifted elsewhere, and many of the people soon followed suit. Nothin' but Blue Skies tells the story of how the country's industrial heartland grew, boomed, bottomed, and hopes to be reborn. Through a propulsive blend of storytelling and reportage, celebrated writer Edward McClelland delivers the rise, fall, and revival of the Rust Belt and its people..

(Guitar Chord Songbook). The essentials of what you need to strum 44 Nelson favorites: Always on My Mind * Beer for My Horses * Blue Skies * Georgia on My Mind * Help Me Make It Through the Night * Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Cowboys * On the Road Again * Shotgun Willie * To All the Girls I've Loved Before * Whiskey River * and more..

Two people discover the healing power of love in this Coulter Family romance from New York Times bestselling author Catherine Anderson. Carly Adams feels as if she’s been given a new lease on life. Born with a rare eye disease, she was blind until a recent operation restored her sight. Now, she’s eager to experience everything the world has to offer—including the sweet talk of a handsome cowboy who rouses her desire… Hank Coulter has no plans to settle down, until he discovers that Carly Adams is carrying his child—a pregnancy that threatens her eyesight. Obsessed with making things right, he bullies the blue-eyed beauty into marrying him. With her radiant smile and remarkable goodness, Carly is exactly the kind of wife he’d always imagined by his side. But if Hank wants their practical arrangement to become permanent, he’s going to have to convince Carly that one moment of risk can bring about a lifetime of joy….

In this extraordinary, true story about an independent woman, a world-famous aviator, and the powerful man who loved them both, Sally Putnam Chapman, the granddaughter of Dorothy Binney Putnam and George Putnam, recounts a treasure trove of memories, spanning the years 1907 to 1961, culled from her grandmother's diaries. of photos..

In this pathbreaking book, Allen Forte uses modern analytical procedures to explore the large repertoire of beautiful love songs written during the heyday of American musical theater, the Big Bands, and Tin Pan Alley. Covering the work of such songwriters as Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, and Harold Arlen, he seeks to illuminate this extraordinary music indigenous to America by revealing its deeper organizational characteristics. In so doing, he aims to establish it as a unique corpus of music that deserves more intensive study and appreciation by scholars and connoisseurs in the broader fields of American popular music and jazz. Expressing much of the traditional tonality associated with European music in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the love songs of the Golden Age are shown to draw on a rich variety of elements--popular harmony, idiomatic lyric-writing, and Afro-American dance rhythms. His analyses of such songs as "Embraceable You" or "Yesterdays" in particular exemplify his ability to convey the sublime, unpretentious simplicity of this great music..

The day he finished high school in 1967, Steve Sorensen began a fifty-year adventure in the southern Sierra Nevada. After learning to rock climb in Yosemite Valley, Sorensen went on to spend fourteen years working for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, where he became the leader of a backcountry crew, a skilled tree faller, an emergency medical technician, a wildland firefighter, a backcountry snow surveyor, and a mule packer. Working with park botanists, he developed new techniques for restoring damaged meadows, and his crews rehabilitated miles of eroded trails throughout the parks. Later he wrote the first two hiking guidebooks for the park’s frontcountry trails. Sorensen’s heartfelt tales of life in the southern Sierra Nevada are told with style and humor, both informative and touching at the same time. Though his blunt criticism of the National Park Service might anger some, many park employees will recognize the honesty and accuracy of his observations. A Branch of the Sky is infused with the love and respect Sorensen felt for his friends and coworkers, many of whom he lost to accidents and disease. How he made his peace with their ghosts is a unique and captivating story, beautifully told..

From "Over the Rainbow" to "Moon River" and from Al Jolson to Barbra Streisand, The Songs of Hollywood traces the fascinating history of song in film, both in musicals and in dramatic movies such as High Noon. Extremely well-illustrated with 200 film stills, this delightful book sheds much light on some of Hollywood's best known and loved repertoire, explaining how the film industry made certain songs memorable, and highlighting important moments of film history along the way. The book focuses on how the songs were presented in the movies, from early talkies where actors portrayed singers "performing" the songs, to the Golden Age in which characters burst into expressive, integral song--not as a "performance" but as a spontaneous outpouring of feeling. The book looks at song presentation in 1930s classics with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and in 1940s gems with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. The authors also look at the decline of the genre since 1960, when most original musicals were replaced by film versions of Broadway hits such as My Fair Lady..

The team behind IDW’S Comic Book History of Comics returns with a brand-new series! From Aardman to Zoetrope, Disney to Miyasaki, Hanna-Barbera to Pixar, and everything in between! In this issue: Sound comes to cartoons, and Walt Disney takes the world by storm with Mickey Mouse, Silly Symphonies, and Snow White! A whole slew of icons are created, from the Fleischers’ Betty Boop to Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes stars! But it's not all fun and laughter for the animation workforce, whose strikes brings the industry to its knees!.

Everyone knows what it is like to go from periods of immense sadness to moments of intense happiness. This collection incorporates true stories, fictional stories, and others’ stories in the form of poetry encapsulated in emotion. I write about emotions that are otherwise hard to deal with, social issues, and mental illness. The title Zigzags & Glow Sticks is supposed to symbolize the intensity of the ups and downs of life, the parts that never seem to get better, and the parts that feel so great. No matter who you are and where you come from, this book is for you..

From the team behind The Comic Book History of Comics comes the perfect companion piece telling the story of the triumphs and tragedies of the filmmakers and beloved animated characters of the past century and a half—essential for hardcore fans of the medium and noobies alike! It's all here, from Aardman to Zoetrope, Disney to Miyazaki, Hanna-Barbera to Pixar, and everything in-between! Begin in the early 1900s with J. Stuart Blackton and the first American cartoon, Winsor McCay's Gertie the Dinosaur, and Felix the Cat! Find out about Margaret Winkler, the most powerful person in early animation, and Walt Disney, who revolutionizes cartoons with sound and color! Discover how Fleischer Studios teaches us to sing "Boop-boop-a-doop" and eat our spinach, and how Warner Bros' Looney Toons rivaled Disney's Silly Symphonies! Plus, icons of animation including Hanna-Barbera, Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones, and Ruby-Spears; the Plastic Age of toy-based TV shows including G.I. Joe, Transformers, and He-Man; and the new Golden Age of TV animation launched by The Simpsons! And go abroad to France with Émile Cohl's dynamic doodles in Fantasmagorie; to Japan, where the Imperial Navy debuts the first full-length anime as propaganda, Divine Sea Warriors, and Osamu Tezuka conquers TV as he conquered manga; and to Argentina, which beat out Snow White for the first feature length animated movie by two decades! And finally, Jurassic Park and the computer animation revolution! Post-Little Mermaid Disney, Pixar, and Studio Ghibli conquer the world! If you’ve ever wanted to know more about the history of animation but were afraid to ask, this book is especially for you!.

Voices, tells of a world where lives are adrift in a sea of flames. Such an atmosphere of dancing human remains may be hard to imagine unless it's been lived. Like firebrands streaking through a black night sky, Spirit things can seem a fantasy to a casual eye. As for the telling's in this book: they're not a glimpse aEUR| but a deep gaze and the encounters of a human soul. Born far apart, Sue and Bob's lives began as fairytales aEUR| but as fairytales will do, their dreams bled-out and soaked the ground! Broken homes, drugs, alcohol, and a confused moral compass led them down treacherous paths. Then in 1973, while drifting through the universe, their twisting paths collided one day in the dark. Bob was a violent atheist, who professed he was god; Sue, who once aspired to be a Nun, now dabbled in mysticism in her parched thirst for truth. Then came the days of the Valiant ones who laid siege to our Kingdom for four months. Two months in, Sue prayed through the nightaEUR| and when I learned of it, I threatened her life. God then showed her in a dream, my soul, now completely void of light - and as she watched, giant, soulless birds began devouring me. Two weeks later and close to death, alone in my room I prayed, and once I asked for forgiveness, a voice above me spoke. So the days of my dying ended aEUR| for the days of miracles had now begun! This is a true story.

"The Texas Folklore Society has been alive and kicking for over one hundred years now, and I don't really think there's any mystery as to what keeps the organization going strong. The secret to our longevity is simply the constant replenishment of our body of contributors. We are especially fortunate in recent years to have had papers given at our annual meetings by new members--young members, many of whom are college or even high school students. "These presentations are oftentimes given during sessions right alongside some of our oldest members. We've also had long-time members who've been around for years but had never yet given papers; thankfully, they finally took the opportunity to present their research, fulfilling the mission of the TFS: to collect, preserve, and present the lore of Texas and the Southwest. "You'll find in this book some of the best articles from those presentations. The first fruits of our youngest or newest members include Acayla Haile on the folklore of plants. Familiar and well-respected names like J. Rhett Rushing and Kenneth W. Davis discuss folklore about monsters and the classic 'widow's revenge' tale. These works--and the people who produced them--represent the secret behind the history of the Texas Folklore Society, as well as its future."--Kenneth L. Untiedt.

From the turn of the century to the 1960s, the songwriters of Tin Pan Alley dominated American music. Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George and Ira Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart--even today these giants remain household names, their musicals regularly revived, their methods and styles analyzed and imitated, and their songs the bedrock of jazz and cabaret. In The Poets of Tin Pan Alley Philip Furia offers a unique new perspective on these great songwriters, showing how their poetic lyrics were as important as their brilliant music in shaping a golden age of American popular song. Furia writes with great perception and understanding as he explores the deft rhymes, inventive imagery, and witty solutions these songwriters used to breathe new life into rigidly established genres. He devotes full chapters to all the greats, including Irving Berlin, Lorenz Hart, Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Oscar Hammerstain II, Howard Dietz, E.Y. Harburg, Dorothy Fields, Leo Robin, and Johnny Mercer. Furia also offers a comprehensive survey of other lyricists who wrote for the sheet-music industry, Broadway, Hollywood, and Harlem nightclub revues. This was the era that produced The New Yorker, Don Marquis, Dorothy Parker, and E.B. White--and Furia places the lyrics firmly in this fascinating historical context. In these pages, the lyrics emerge as an important element of American modernism, as the lyricists, like the great modernist poets, took the American vernacular and made it sing..

This unique and creative collection of stories come from my personal journals they will assist you in recognizing God’s voice when he speaks to you, and to see what happens when we listen. Over the course of the journal your minds will be tickled into the realization that all believers of Christ can hear His voice..